Just smell that Gingerbread!

Ready for reindeer!

Reindeer, snowmen, gingerbread houses and elves all add up to lots of anticipation and fun! The highlight this week was making gingerbread houses- so much candy! Thanks to those who helped out and sent in ingredients! Everyone was very creative with their candy choices on their houses and yards!

Smiles all around!

Candy breaks too!

Slather on the frosting!

Wait 'til you see my idea!

Now for the roof!

Rows of candy on the roof tops!

Look at my finished house!

So much fun!

We also made bead candy canes and reindeer sticker cards...

String red and white beads

Making cards together!

Thanks big sister!

Speaking of reindeer, we learned all about the deer family this week and how they adjust to each season in the year. We learned the difference between white tailed deer and wild reindeer, and know that they all shed their antlers in the winter. Wouldn't it be awesome to find some on a woods walk?!

Reindeer texts

We performed several Reader's Theater plays this week too, and our last visiting readers headed off to the kindergarten wing to read to former teachers.

Ready to Fly play

The Three Little Kittens play

The Tuneful Tiger Singers performed in our class

Career Day school spirit theme

Pro athletes Career day

As if we didn't already have enough excitement this week, we also had school spirit week with chances to dress up in holiday colors, career outfits, pajamas, and snowball white clothes!

Cozy Pajama Day

Fun head gear!

                                                     Then we just dressed for fun:          

 You should have heard the cries of delight when the kids all            opened gifts of a book while eating gingerbread cookies and          watching The Snowman today!

New books!

Well, the week wouldn't have been complete without every sort of excitement, so a couple of loose teeth fell out, adding to the surprises. We also had a birthday celebration today for Maggie, who will turn 7 during vacation!

Wishing you all safe, healthy, and fun holidays this coming week!
Mrs. Dagley

Magic in the air!

Our magical elves!

Look what we made!

There is a lot of excitement at this time of year, and the kids loved making colorful, life sized elves to decorate our room with! 

We are also all prepared for our Gingerbread House making on Monday. Thank you for all the donations of candy, graham crackers, and frosting. It will smell very sweet in here Monday morning! We will hope to start around 9:00 ish and you are welcome to stop in for a bit on your way to work or to stay for the full decorating time (we usually are finished by 10:30 or before). If parents are unable to attend, an older sibling at TES or a grandparent, aunt, etc could come instead to our room 115.

Frosting ready to go into cups

Wow! Candy!

The tables are set!

 We have been an audience for Reader's Theater skits this week and for a puppet show a few friends created on their own.

Skit: Where is bear Cub's Home?

We made a puppet show!

Fish School skit

Time for the Party Reader's Theater play

 We have completed topics 1-6 in math and took the test
for Topic 6 on Friday. It turned out to be our most challenging test
yet, perhaps because of the way the questions were asked, and it took a lot of concentration and focus. We needed to de-stress, so had a 'run like crazy' break out in the football field for 10 minutes following the test!

In science we have wrapped up our physical science units on light and sound energy and communication with light and sound. We 
had fun using Morse Code to decipher dots and dashes when we learned about the telegraph. We also sequenced a timeline of the telephone and were amazed at how the phone has changed over the years. Dialing a rotary phone was a new experience when I brought in an old fashioned phone!

Dialing a number takes a while!

I have an important call to make!

Time for a phone chat!

Another highlight of the week was going off to read to kindergarten classes! Everyone has been practicing reading a book with a partner or 2 partners and finally the day arrived when most could head off to the red wing to read to a kindergarten audience. (One group has to wait until this coming week.) We have had second graders come to our class to read, so having the chance to be the traveling readers to kindergarten felt very important!

In phonics we have been focusing on suffixes, specifically words ending in /s/ or /es/ when plural or when depicting action. We have also been working with blends (2 consonants before the vowel) such as flag, green, clap...). We will be moving on to long vowels shortly.

We are also using these last couple of weeks after Personal Narrative writing, to create a fiction story of our own. We are developing a character and a story problem and will work on the solution and wrap up next week.

It's a very busy time of year - stay rested and healthy!

See you Monday,
Mrs. Dagley

You can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man!

Sequencing The Gingerbread Baby

Just a few of many!

As we read each new version of the classic Gingerbread Man, it has generated anticipation to see which characters the cookie will encounter and what his/her final fate will be. After reading the Gingerbread Baby the kids sequenced the story, summarizing and retelling it in words and pictures. We have also read The Gingerbread Bear, The Gingerbread Girl, and The Gingerbread Cowboy. We've seen forest animals, desert animals, farm animals, and of course the fox (and one desert coyote) in the various versions. It's a great way to compare and contrast and to identify the story structure. 

Speaking of gingerbread, you all received the info for our own gingerbread house making. It will be Monday, December 17th between 9:00 ish and 10:30 ish. If you or a relative (grandparent, aunt...) or even another sibling in the school would like to drop by and help with the decorating during any part of it, we'd love to see you!

Pajama Day!

It's always fun being cozy as the cold weather begins, so pajama day is a fun chance to show off our cozy gear! I heard through the grapevine that a couple more P.J. days are coming up...

Math laptop tests!

We completed Topic 5 in math and have moved into subtracting from teen numbers using a double ten frame for Topic 6. Related math equations are also a focus (fact families). Just look at these industrious little mathematicians taking a test on the laptops!

It was wonderful meeting so many of you for conferences and I am sure you thoroughly enjoyed the writing collection they took home! Here they are looking back through their writing and enjoying reading about their ideas.

Remember when I did...?

Now that time was interesting!

Best 'book' I've ever read!

Reading books has taken on a new excitement as the kids can see their progress and are challenging themselves with new books and series. One of our classmates read a favorite book to us, and I have emailed former kindergarten teachers for partners to visit and read to their classes. Starting next week we will send along our readers. 

Sharing a favorite book

As the weather turns chilly, everyone will feel warmer at recess with hats and gloves/mittens. Sometimes it can be hard to keep track of mittens since they go into lunch after recess, but it is worth having them at recess. (Remember back in the day when a string attaching them went through the arms of the coats? I guess that was when they were hand knitted... but a good idea!)

We celebrated Christian's birthday on Friday. He loved wearing his crown all day!

Have a wonderful weekend,
Mrs. Dagley

Bears, bears, how many kinds of bears are there?

All kinds of bear books

We have become bear experts as our non fiction reading has led us into the varied habitats of Grizzly Bears, Panda Bears, Polar Bears, Sun Bears, Black Bears, and more! We have discussed the similarities between all bears and contrasted the differences between each bear. We've had bear centers, poems, stories, and writing activities. While listing bear features in sentence writing, we have learned how to use commas- "All bears have thick fur, long snouts, and sharp claws." This mini unit will lead into learning about changes with seasons and how animals prepare. Bears are also a popular character in fiction books as we have seen with Corduroy, Winnie the Pooh, Berenstain Bears, and books we read this week such as Where's My Teddy, and I'm Lost! (which takes place in Boston).

Our bear poems with caves

In science we continue to learn how light and sound have been used to communicate in the past and in the present. We had some fun making megaphones to call across to each other with outside! We will move on to the invention of the telephone and Morse Code. 

Calling across to friends!

Answering the call!

Another batch of Reader Theater plays has been enjoyed. They love the play practice time, and it is great to see the increased fluency and expression as they read their parts in a conversational manner.

New Frog At the Pond

Dinosaur play

Ready to Fall

The Last Apple

It has been an exciting time for reading lately too as the kids are being introduced to new series to read. Biscuit the dog and Mittens the kitten series are popular as are the Little Bear, Flat Stanley (younger version), Stuart Little (younger version), and Hot Wheels series. Applying decoding strategies and phonics rules when reading unfamiliar words has been very helpful in navigating these new books.

Flat Stanley is cool!

Biscuit!

Reading buddies make it extra fun!

 We completed Topic 5 in math yesterday, and the kids are very proud of the strategies they are choosing to solve problems. Doubles, doubles plus one, making a ten, using a number line, or planning the best combinations to add first when solving three digit addition problems have all been used successfully!

We wished Wesley a Happy Birthday on Tuesday - big smiles all around on that day! 

The December book order went home - if any books will be gifts, just email and I will double bag them to send home. 

Thanks for signing up for conferences. It will be wonderful talking about all the growth we have seen this fall! 

Enjoy the sunshine today,
Mrs. Dagley